Evacuation sleds are used by hospitals, assisted living facilities, emergency services, etc., to rapidly and safely evacuate patients from danger zones, such as flood areas. The patient is typically transferred from a bed into the sled, lowered to the floor, and then evacuated by pulling or dragging. An efficient evacuation sled can be deployed and used by a single nurse or other first responder. An evacuation mattress is disclosed in International Application Number PCT/NL 86/00015, published Dec. 18, 1986 under No. WO 86/07253, based on a Netherlands application filed Jun. 12, 1985. The mattress is characterized by belts or ropes to be put around the patient, which are permanently fastened to the mattress. Such a mattress, while very useful, may be relatively expensive to buy, store, and maintain.
While many sleigh-type patient evacuation sleds are known (such as the evacuation sled disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0278754 to Walkingshaw), these sleds require several caregivers to transfer the patient into the sled for evacuation. The sled is then dragged through the hospital, down numerous flights of stairs, and then to an evacuation center where the patient waits (often for hours) for transportation to a hospital, where the patient must be removed from the sled and placed in a bed (again requiring several caregivers). This leads to problems such as patient contusions from being bounced down steps, patient hypothermia, and the necessity for many caregivers to perform the multiple patient-transfer steps.
Other known structures for evacuating non-ambulatory persons include boards or mats to support the patient. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,008 to Johansson discloses rigid mats with straps, respectively placed beneath the patient's chest and thighs. A relatively complicated Rescue Transportation Mattress is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,736,474 to Moran et al., wherein an inflatable support member and crossed straps are used to secure the person being transported. Again, such solutions do little for a quick, safe, and warm evacuation of a patient from a facility during an emergency.
A child restraint device with removable semi-rigid support is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,428 issued Dec. 9, 1986 to Brooks. It includes a semi-rigid base and a cover attachable to the base so as to secure the child between the base and the cover. A restraining harness on top of the cover secures the entire arrangement to a transporting device.
There are numerous other patents and patent applications employing rigid or semi-rigid supports and belts or straps to secure the person transported, for example: U.S. Pat. No. 7,422,220, issued Sep. 8, 2008 to Walkingshaw; U.S. Pat. No. 6,871,368, issued Mar. 29, 2005 to Calkin; and U.S. Patent Publication No. 1006006104b0, published Mar. 23, 2006 to Wolf. One disadvantage with such sleds relates to the difficulty in securely and reliably gripping the sled for transport. Another disadvantage is that dragging the patient and sled across a rough surface, such as concrete, is difficult for all but the hardiest of nurses.
Thus, what is needed is an economical emergency sled for injured persons in areas with limited access that is capable of operation by a single caregiver, provides a warm and secure cocoon for the patient, allows easy transport over any type of surface, provides proper support for all of the patient's body, allows the patient to feel a high degree of comfort in what is otherwise a very stressful situation, and provides securing means (such as straps) to firmly hold the patient in place during transit.